idkdc wrote in post #17899886What kind of retail channels have their previous lenses been sold through? Any reputable dealers?

I bought directly from their website, http://www.venuslens.n​et/ . It was a pre-order for their previous product, 15mm f4 1:1 macro, and I managed to find a 30$ off coupon in one of online reviews of the lens. Also, the shipping was free, and I indeed was one of the first to get the lens. Customer service was good - they discovered my fairly negative review of their lens on dpreview.com, one of their tech guys sent me a message suggesting that my copy is likely subpar and that they can replace it. So they did, with free fast (~7d) shipping, also paying 30$ for my shipping costs, and the new copy indeed was substantially better. So I'd deal with them again.

It was also listed (as a pe-order) on http://www.bhphotovide​o.com/, but no coupon discount, shipping wasn't free for Canada (plus I'd have to pay the tax and duty), and I'd get it at least a month later.

Tareq wrote in post #17900194Sounds this lens will be a stellar one, if the price is right [cheap] then i may get one when it will be available, it is damn wide.

As it does look like an improvement over (and direct competitor to) Samyang 14mm f2.8, I suspect their initial price will be slightly higher than the Samyang's. Say, around 400-450$. Watch out for pre-order coupons - I got 30$ off + free shipping with their previous lens.

To give you some reference points, their two other lenses now are sold at B&H for 379$ (60mm 2:1 macro) and 479$ (15mm 1:1 macro):

pulsar123 wrote in post #17900345As it does look like an improvement over (and direct competitor to) Samyang 14mm f2.8, I suspect their initial price will be slightly higher than the Samyang's. Say, around 400-450$. Watch out for pre-order coupons - I got 30$ off + free shipping with their previous lens.

To give you some reference points, their two other lenses now are sold at B&H for 379$ (60mm 2:1 macro) and 479$ (15mm 1:1 macro):

Great, anything in $350-500 is affordable and very good price, i just thought maybe because it is too wide thy may charge more than $500, but we all can wait to see the final price, and i usually don't buy it immediately when hit the shelves, i wait a bit for more samples and more convincing then i buy it simply.

It is a manual lens, but will this lens be designed for full frame or crop body? for full frame it will be really something, i may sell my Samyang 14mm.

According to these folks, http://www.pentaxforum​s.com …2-8-uwa-fast-ff-lens.html , the sample shots were made with Sony 7R, which suggests the lens is full frame. (Also the title of the thread has "ff" in it.) I am downloading the full archive of the sample shots from the Chinese site (300 MB), and then I hopefully can see the full EXIF info.

EDIT2: I just got their full sample archive (300MB) - 16 photos with full EXIF info, and the photos indeed were made with the FF camera Sony 7R (pixel dimensions: 7360x4912). But it got me thinking - perhaps this lens can only work with mirrorless cameras, and won't work with DSLRs (because of its short register distance)? One of their sample shots (the very first one in the Chinese thread) is a weird one - a square 10,000x10,000 pixels, and no camera EXIF info. I am pretty sure it is a stitched photo. Looking at the full-res photos, the resolution is fantastic in this lens, even in extreme corners. I keep my fingers crossed that it will work on DSLRs, because it looks like a great lens.

The photos' description says "to be released in Summer 2016", so I was pretty close with my estimate for the lens availability ("in a few months").

That is a great news, so i hope until summer i am doing great in my life and can save something, this lens price isn't that bad anyway, but who knows what else i gonna get before or after this lens that may change my plan?!!!

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